5 Divorce secrets you need to know to win your divorce case

Strategies to win your divorce case: 5 Secrets of how the divorce process works and what you should do to protect yourself

TAKE NOTE THAT:

1. The longer you’ve been married, the more respect you get, the more assets you get. A marriage that is 10 years old or older is considered a long term marriage and these are treated differently by the courts, and even by the State. For example, after 10 years if you divorce you are still entitled to the social security benefits of your former spouse. So before you rush out to file, ask yourself, “how long have I been married?” If less than 10 years, try to wait it out if you can.

2. It is always wise to keep at least one bank account separate from your spouse. Better yet, if you only deposit money that other people give you into the account, it’s not marital property and you don’t have to share it with your spouse. In other words, let’s say you open a bank account in your own name and then you only deposit checks you get from your rich parents in it. Or trust account checks, or whatever. That is your separate property because you didn’t “commingle” it with marital property. When you divorce, those funds are not on the table. But if you take the same funds and deposit it into a joint account? It’s marital property and when you divorce your spouse, you have to share it with him or her.

3. Don’t leave the marital home if you want to get exclusive occupancy during the months or years the divorce is being litigated. If you leave, the court basically could say you gave your spouse “de facto possession.” Try to stay and ask the court for exclusive occupancy – meaning get your spouse thrown out – in a pendente lite application. This is likely to be granted if you can show domestic violence is an issue. Any police reports filed recently? Those are your friends in times like these.

4. Chances are, if your spouse makes significantly more money than you do, you can get them to pay your attorney’s fees. You have to bring this to your attorney’s attention and have your attorney request fees in their preliminary applications to the court for relief.

5. Unless there is a court order stopping your spouse from dissipating assets, they can pretty much move assets, sell assets, waste assets, hide assets or whatever else they want to do with assets. If that is an issue in your divorce, you should have your lawyer ask the court for emergency relief and the lawyer should ask the court to issue a temporary order that assets will not be touched by either spouse. Otherwise, sometimes a spouse with bad intentions can really cream the other spouse and leave them without many recourses if assets have been removed or dissipated.